It has been said in other threads, that it is possible to determine what railroad owns/owned a particular bridge, based upon how well it has or has not been maintained.
While our good friend Chad is reorganizing for the continuation of his "western where is it?’ thread, lets take a look at some of the eastern railroad’s bridges, and see if we can , with minimal clues, determine which eastern railroad owns/owned which bridge.
Clues for this first pair of bridges is that at one time the lines crossing both bridges pictured here, belonged to the NYC/Big Four. Currently, one belongs to CSX, and the other belongs to Norfolk Southern. Can you guess which bridge belongs to which railroad?
Ok I honestly don’t know but since the Big Four was mentioned I’m going to have to say these bridges were used by the following roads: Louisville & Jefforsonville Bridge & Railroad, Baltimore and Ohio, Cleveland Cincinnati Chicago & St Louis Railway, and New York Central.
I’m going to say that eiher NS or CSX maintain this bridge today most likely CSX, and the bridges mentioned are located in KY.
Danggggg! Right off the bat, …I’m gonna have to stop giving such good clues
Chad: exactly!!
Model car: yep the first bridge is the former Conrail bridge over I-69 at Daleville, The second bridge is the former Conrail line running over US Hwy 24 at Wabash Indiana, currently part of NS I think they call it the “Marion Branch”.
Murphy: [#offtopic] [;)][;)] Feel free to start a "Who’s diesel barn is it? thread, this one is about bridges.[}:)]
I’m gonna have to make this one harder, by giving less of a clue, .
All I’ll say about these next two bridges is that both currently are abandoned, one formerly used by NS, the other by CSX Based upon the general condition of each, which road would you say owned which?
Ooh ooh, I know this one, ooh ooh. Is the first one NS, and the second one CSX?
Reply to the note on the post above: I was just curious if the condition of CSX bridges, reletive to the condition of NS bridges, was similar to how they kept up their other property, that’s all.[:)]
Hey in total honesty, I imagine that CSX takes adequate care of the assets important to it.
My recent limited exposure to CSX has been limited to (a)the former Monon through Lafayette (you should see their single track overgrown with greenery right parallel to NS’s dual track thruway, beside the Amtrak station) so obviously that isn’t important to them (b) the former PRR broadway limited route that is a definitive example of atrophy, so important to CSX that they leased it to Rail America, so obviously that isn’t too important to them
And
(c) the former B&O mainline through Garrett on the way to chicago, which looks like a well oiled machine, certainly on a par with anything NS owns (top side, that is) Though i’ll admit I’ve been tempted to weave through the county roads following the line in search of neglected bridges, just for personal amusement.
Being objective, I’m sure that I could find some rusting hulks that belong to NS, But even the NS rust monuments appear to have been painted sometime within the past decade, as opposed to the CSX bridges that seem to have been painted last when constructed.
So, when I read about these Ohio river towns and their grievances with CSX over rust, it sure rings consistent with my local observations.
They could put together an inhouse crew and paint the darned things for a fraction of the contractor bid costs they fly around hoping to prove the projects are “cost prohibitive”.
People try to rationalize why CSX should not, and cannot be forced to paint their own bridges, the question
Murphy, I looked everywhere for your original comment pertaining to the condition of the remainder of CSX’s infastructure. I guess it was here in this thread, but you removed it?
I finally got around to reading the July issue of Trains magazine, and it made me think of this thread when reading about how Conrail’s CEO wanted to tie up as little cash as possible in the consolidation of equity between the 2 entities, because he knew that vast sums would be needed to correct and repair CSX’s legendary neglect to it’s plant and infastructure.
So, maybe CSX is in a league of it’s own in terms of neglecting long term responsibilities in subservience to “next quarter” mentality.
In the long run, I suspect they will be forced to regret it… Rusting steel gets worse, not better, and the neglect will accelerate the need for eventual replacement. The decision makers are banking upon that eventuality not becoming a pressing issue until well after their departure,. In essence, Borrowing money from the future to pay dividends today. Not a positive growth strategy by any means.
I just hope the taxpayers are savy enough to dodge that bullet when it comes, leaving the burden of bridge replacement lay where it rightly belongs.
Wonder how many bridges in advanced state of deterioration there were on the gulf coast line that SOME were trying to con the taxpayers into buying off CSX?
(the relocation bit)
AntiGates: I had removed that part of the post, as it appeared that it was going to cause some friction(?) Lord knows we don’t need any friction on this forum.[;)]
I just wondered if CSX kept all their property in that condition? Being in the middle of the country,CSX is very foreign to me. The spooky parallel that I see, is that this looks like SP in the making?
I was just teasing you when I called “Off topic” on your inquiry.
Seriously though, your question keys into Levan’s (and evidently others) opinion of CSX’s physical plant. I really wish I had already read the conrail article before you posed the question, so I could have responded accordinly.
It was actually a small scale jaw dropper reading about that very issue (have you seen the reference in the mag) after we had touched on the subject here…
I guess one could conceptualize that residents of these cities such as Covington are protesting against having their long term quality of life forsaken in service to the quarterly mentality.
